The election is coming and where do you stand on the big political views of our time? I'd like you to look first at this web page from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/candidatequiz/. Take a minute to see how the contenders differ from each other and from you.
When you have a little background, please take the online quiz here: http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html and report back to us what you discovered. Did it surprise you? What did you learn? What issues matter to you most?
As this is our first blog, let me set some ground rules. Please comment once without looking at what your peers have shared. Keep it real -- what do you think, feel, like, dislike -- you get the idea. Then, please read the comments of your classmates and offer a second response to someone else. We want to create a dialogue...refer to people by name, ask them questions, respond to them, etc. Sooooo.....that's two entries. If you do it with care, you'll get full credit (please don't even think for a moment that you're graded on your views -- actually you get full credit for HAVING opinions.) Conversely you'll receive no credit (that's a zero folks) for not participating! Give it a shot.....we'll make it interesting.
26 comments:
So after taking the quiz (which actually most of the class bore witness to), my scores checked back as a Nader supporter, with Obama coming in a close second. This didn't really surprise me, as I hold more liberal and therefore Democratic core views. And, not only am I opposed to such core Republican views such as pro-life or their immigration policy, but after the last few years of a Republican president, I am completely against the War and most of their newly established goals. Therefore, my results were no surprise to me.
After taking this quiz I was a bit surprised. With all that my parents talked about I assumed I was behind Mccain. It shocked me that I was most compatible with Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, and Barack Obama. I see now that most of my views are actually more on the liberal side of the spectrum. I guess this shows that we must think for ourselves and hear both sides of every argument and discussion before forming our own conclusions.
My quiz results did not surprise me. The quiz said that I was most supportive of Ralph Nader. My second and third choices were Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader, with only a small marginal percentage between the two. This doesn't surprise me because I realize what my point of views on the government and government dealings are. I know, for now, that I am a Democratic and that the environment is an extremely important issue to me. That's why the quiz said I was edging towards the green/democratic side. Nader is classified as an independent, but on a democratic or republican spectrum, he would lean towards the democratic one. The one thing that did surprise me was why I didn't have a high percentage of Obama. I thought I shared almost all of his views, but according to the quiz, I am not as compatible with him as previously thought. Even though my quiz results said I should vote for Nader, I would still vote for Obama because I still feel that he is the presidential candidate that will act on the issues that are most important to me.
I agree with what Leah had to say. She has a very important point in saying that we need to hear both sides of every argument before making our own opinions. Most of the time people will be blind sighted and only listen to their point of view and refuse to even glance at the others persons ideas; even if they are very valid points. Like Leah said, people need to learn to listen to both sides fully before being able to voice their own opinions. Otherwise, the person is being one-sided and they will never know for sure if what they are supporting is truly what they want.
After taking the quiz I found that my political views fall more towards the views of Cynthia McKinney and Barack Obama. It was a tad surprising, since normally I seem to agree more with Republican views. Though, I can see how these results came up because I have mixed views about certain topics.
I agree with both Dayna and Leah because I feel like some people may not fully understand a concept before they become open about their views. People have to understand where everyone else is coming from and compare views. It is not truly fair to oneself to state one's opinions without knowing exactly what they are representing.
I agree strongly with what Leah is saying about listening for ourselves and forming our own political opinions, which at our age is something all teenagers should really learn to do, as a way of developing ourselves to get ready for the election in another four years in which we will be able to vote.
I accept that my quiz results show that i am a liberal supporter. however, I do not really follow politics, but after taking these quizzes, I feel like politics are pretty interesting and essential to understanding certain relationships within the world. my results from the first quiz were that i am more of an Obama supporter than Clinton, but my second quiz results showed that i was most compatible with ralph nader,with cynthia mckinney and barack obama following closely. i'm not saying that the environment is the only issue in the world and that it should be the focus of the presidential candidates, but if our surroundings deteriorate, where will we be?
so we're all agreeing that we need to start thinking for ourselves and i will totally jump on the bandwagon.i agree to the fullest that we as teenagers not only need to start thinking for ourselves and forming our own opinions but we need to believe in them. in the long run, we are individuals, and we have voices that will be heard if we just let them.
After taking this quiz, I wasn't very surprised because I knew that i was on the republican side and a supporter of John Mccain. The quiz said that I was for Mccain and then 2nd was Obama. This surprised me a little bit because I was almost positive that I was a republican. Even though my quiz said that Obama was 2nd, I still would vote for Mccain because I support all of the republican views.
I agree completely with Leah. Not to sound repetitive, but we need to think about these issues and what we truly believe in. Even though our parents may believe in certain things, doesn't mean that you automatically have to believe in the same topics. We have the ability to think for ourselves.
I had a 83% match with Barack Obama because most of what he says seems to make sense to me. He has a definite opinion and plan of how he is going to tackle the policies regarding abortion, health, education and Iraq.
The Republicans (Mc Cain) criticise Obama because he has less foreign policy experience than they do but the fact is, his views are more in line with the rest of the world, particularly on gay marriage, global warming and stem cell research.
One huge problem I see with Mc Cain is his age. It may not be politically correct to say that he is too old for the job, but you cannot argue with nature. This job of being president requires a young, energetic, vibrant, charismatic leader that the rest of the world respects. We have already had two terms of a president who believes in the same policies as Mc Cain and look at the problems we find ourselves in today.
One thing, however, I do not understand, coming from another country, is the gun laws in America. The issue seems to terrify both parties because they know they will lose votes over it.
In the majority of other civilised countries, it is illegal to carry small hand guns that can be concealed; and therefore gun crime is significantly lower. Nearly every night on the news here in the U.S. we hear of an innocent child or bystander being killed by being caught in the cross fire of some unnecessary gun battle. I understand that if you live on a farm, there are dangerous animals etc, so you need to protect yourself. For this, I perfectly understand why someone should own a rifle (with a background check of course) but there is absolutely no reason why anybody would ever need a gun that can be concealed (except the police or security services). It just does not make sense to me. If only to save one innocent child's life, it is worth banning them. Access to guns is far to easy in America.
Although I am for O'bama, my quiz results show that I am most compatible with Chuck Baldwin. This was so because I have liberal views regarding abortion, women and gay rights, and others in that category; yet I strongly favor the economy over the environment because of the economical crisis this country is currently in.
I like what leah had to say even though I think most everyone tends to support the party to which their parents belong to. And I find it interesting that Ryan agrees with leah's point about making your own political views; yet he still would vote for the republican party when his results show otherwise. Ryan is contradicting himself because he is disregarding his own political outlook and voting for the party that his family favors. But he agrees with leah.
I agree with Amanda because she believes that we should not state our support for one candidate until we have listened to the views and policies of all. Then we need to decide for ourselves who we think will do the best job for the country; it is not sensible to follow hearsay or our parents' traditions.
Common sense and logic should be fundamental..... Am I the only one that thinks Mc Cain is too old?
I really enjoy how everyone is agreeing with me on this blog. Besides that, I found it interesting how Gracie brought up Mccain's age. I had never really thought much about it, but I know feel that it is a very important matter. Also, considering his previous health conditions I have heard about, he does not in my eyes seem healthy or fit enough to run this country (even though his mom is like 100).
After taking the quiz, my score said that my views were most compatible with Nadar. Obama was second in my quiz which didn't surprise me much seeing as I am supporting him. These two candidates being my top two was pretty predictable seeing as I voted democratic on most the issues. While Nadar is in fact an independent, his views seem to lean over to the democratic side.
I feel that Leah brought up a good point. I myself have mainly democratic views, yet I'm not sure if these are my own views or those of my parents. While I believe I will end up being a democrat, I wonder if my views would be changed if I grew up in a republican household. I think that for someone to have different views then their parents at this age must be pretty difficult for them, as we are just beginning to from political views off are own, we will probably look to our parents to form a better understanding on the matter. This generally leads us to endorse their ideas as our own.
I was not surprised with my quiz results. My quiz results correspond to who I support, McCain. My views are fairly similar to my parents, but the do differ on some issues like abortion. My parents are strongly against it, but I really don't have a strong opinion towards it.
LIke most other people I agree with Leah that you have to decide for yourself what issues matter to you, but I do have most of the same views as my parents. I think your political views have a lot to do with how you are brought up, so I don't find it that surprising that my views are similar to my parents. Also I dont really understand what Shanfeld is talking about when he is talking about Ryan, because in his comment it said that his quiz results were for McCain.
I've never even seen a picture of Ralph Nader before that quiz told me i should vote for him. Why is he even on there. The only candidates that really matter right now are Obama and McCain. Voting for an independent would be useless to this country. This country does not need citizens wasting their votes on someone who is never going to get elected. I'm not saying that Ralph Nader is a bad guy, but he just should not stay on the ballot when Obama needs all the votes and support he can get. Yes I'm a democrat. Obama fills me with hope that this country might be able to get back on track and become the greatest country on earth. Again. Seriously, when I picture McCain i see him at an old folks home enjoying a bowl of pudding. He's 73. He's had cancer. His medical records are hundreds of pages long. If he dies then Palin get to be president which scares the hell out of me. I just watched the VP debate and she never actually answered the questions she was asked. It sounded like every one of her answers was scripted and she was just trying her best not to screw up as much as she did in her Couric interview. Lowered expectations actually help her sadly. It was the first time i had actually heard Biden talk and he sounded pretty good. Strong enough and smart enough to hold his own should he need to take Obama's place. My views are mostly, if not completely, liberal. We clearly need some change in this country's government. Not McCain's not really change, but Obama's serious change.
I agree that people should not believe in something just because their parents believe in it or because they were brought up around people who believe in it. Its peer pressure. People need to start thinking for themselves and really looking at certain issues that they might have different opinions on.
Being completely oblivious to politics, I didn't really expect much from this quiz; however, I was intrigued by the fact that I had a 95% compatibility with Ralph Nadar. To have my views be so similar to the Green Party was actually pretty interesting. I always thought myself to be a Libertarian or Democratic, but I never thought of the Green Party. One topic I would like to talk about, would be the topic of Abortion Rights. Although I am a devoted Christian, I believe that woman should at least have the right to abort as a given. I'm not saying that woman should abort babies, but I just think that women should have all the right to decide what is right for them. Of course these abortion rights should have a limit, at least. It should be specially open for young teenagers or for woman who can't take care of the baby at that time. People argue, "That's what orphanges are for," but there are already so many other children out there in need of help; therefore, orphanges do no serve as an alternative.
Although my results were heavily weighted towards Nadar, I believe I'm sort of also in the position of Amanda. I tend to have really strong liberal views, but sometimes I feel sort of in the middle and can't seem to really decide. I also sort of have mixed views.
My results for this quiz were that I most closely share the same views as Ralph Nader, followed by Barack Obama. It surprises me only because I thought my views were more in the middle, when in fact my views are very liberal.Both of my parents are liberal, which is what likely influenced me.Although I was most similar to Nader, If i could vote, I would vote for Obama.
I also agree with Leah, even though I share the same views as my parents. Everybody can have their own independent views, but there is no shame in sharing views with your parents.
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